Stop stigmatising Muslims, Islamic leader tells French politicians

French politicians are stigmatising Muslims, the leader of one of France's major Islamic organisations said at the opening of its annual conference near Paris on Saturday. The government banned six foreign imams scheduled to address the meeting from entering the country.

Muslims are hurt by some political leaders remarks that have "stigmatised" them, the president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France (UOIF) declared when he opened the conference at Le Bourget, north of Paris.

The day before Interior Minister Claude Guéant declared that the government was watching the meeting "very attentively" in case "republican law" is infringed.